John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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164. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of applications that have been received under the help-to-buy scheme to date in 2017; the number of these applications that have been processed; the amount of funding spent on this to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49317/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Help to Buy incentive aims to both assist those first-time buyers struggling to save for the deposit required to purchase a home, as well as incentivising additional building and the provision of extra housing stock.

To avail of the incentive involves two stages. Stage 1 is the Application Stage, wherein prospective applicants can query whether they qualify for the incentive. They can also get clarity on the maximum amount of rebate they could potentially benefit from, based on their tax paid in a four-year period. Stage 2 is the Claims Stage, wherein applicants that decide to proceed with purchasing or building a qualifying property must provide documentary evidence of the relevant property transaction or their mortgage draw down.

As of 31 October 2017, Revenue has received 11,367 applications to Stage 1 of the Help to Buy incentive. Of these, 4,487 Stage 2 claims have been created to date. 3,882 of these have been approved, at a total estimated cost to the Exchequer to date in the order of €55.5 million of which €15.8 million is in respect of retrospective claims (for the period 19 July to 31 December 2016).

The Deputy may wish to know that Revenue regularly publishes statistics on the Help to Buy incentive (including the estimated cost of the incentive) at .